Offering a current, comprehensive, and intersectional guide for students, practitioners, and researchers, this book synthesizes existing scholarship on culturally responsive practices that assist in exploring, understanding, and affirming the sexuality(ies) of disabled, chronically ill, neurodivergent, and Mad individuals.

Drawing on an intersectional framework, it integrates insights drawn from an interdisciplinary body of scholarship including psychology, social work, sociology, history, political science, women and gender studies, cultural studies, and education along with perspectives from the practitioners who are actively defining the next generation of best practices.

By highlighting the incredible resilience and resistance of disabled individuals' and communities' sexuality and sexual well-being, this book challenges narratives that rely primarily on a one-dimensional view derived from the medical model and the view of disability as something to be fixed or at least tolerated rather than celebrated. In a world that pathologizes and devalues the sexual existence of disabled individuals, it illustrates how to create thriving communities and relationships, and how they can organize to find their voice, providing a counter-narrative of empowerment that fosters hopefulness, power, and health.

It will be of interest to all scholars, students, and professionals across a variety of professions, including social work, psychology, counseling, policy, healthcare, education, community organizing, and multiple social service settings.



Introduction
Shanna K. Kattari

Part One History and Community Work

Chapter One A (Very Brief) History of Disability and Sexuality Policy
Sarah E. Gzesh, Shanna K. Kattari, Nicolás Juárez and Madelyne J. Mayer

Chapter Two Able-Bodied Women Killing Disabled Babies: How Modern Narratives on Disability and Abortion Erase Disabled People from the Reproductive Justice Movement
Elena Gormley

Chapter Three For Us, By Us: Mutual Aid Efforts in Disabled Queer and Trans Communities
Brendon T. Holloway, Jax Kynn and Hannah Boyke

Part Two Exploring the Specifics

Chapter Four Infinity and rainbows: Supporting the sexuality of neurodivergent people
Shanna K. Kattari, E.B. Gross, Kari Sherwood and C. Riley Hostetter

Chapter Five Access Isn't Optional: Sexuality and Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities
Shanna K. Kattari and Kari Sherwood

Chapter Six Sexuality, Hearing Loss, and d/Deaf Individuals
Kari Sherwood, Shanna K. Kattari and Alison Wetmur

Chapter Seven "Love is Merely a Madness": Sexuality and Madness in a Cisheteropatriarchal Culture
Laura Yakas

Chapter Eight Blindness and Sexuality
Robin Mandell and Hillary K. Hecht

Chapter Nine No Spoons for Spooning: Navigating Sexuality, Chronic Illness, and Chronic Pain
Shanna K. Kattari

Part Three Diverse Types of Practice

Chapter Ten Disability-Affirming Sex Therapy
Erin Martinez and Emma Hertzel

Chapter Eleven Exploring a methodology of care: Creating research with disabled queer individuals and community
Bri Noonan and Elisabeth Z. Lacey

Chapter Twelve Ready, Willing, and Able: Sexuality Education for Disabled Individuals
Autumn Dae Miller and Tiffini Lanza

Chapter Thirteen Disabled and/or Chronically Ill Survivors of Sexual Violence and Intimate Partner Violence
L. B. Klein, Rose C. B. Singh, Jax Kynn, and Kiley J. McLean

Chapter Fourteen Exploring the Intersections of Sex Work and Disability: What Helping Professionals Should Consider
Kimberly Fuentes, Adrienne Graf and Meg Panichelli

Chapter Fifteen Resisting "Too Young": Anti-Adultism in Disability and Sexual Health Justice Advocacy
syd lio riley

Part Four Across Intersecting Identities

Chapter Sixteen Racialization of Disability and Sexuality: A Historical and Contemporary Perspective within the U.S.
Natasha M. Lee-Johnson and Nahime Aguirre Mtanou

Chapter Seventeen Navigating Disability and Sexuality in Old Age
Jess Francis and Hillary K. Hecht

Chapter Eighteen Trans Enough, Queer Enough, Disabled Enough: Exploring Issues of Gatekeeping and Legitimacy of Trans, Queer, and Disabled Identities through Sexuality
Al Wauldron, Flyn Alexander and Shanna K. Kattari

Chapter Nineteen We'll Make Our Own Space: Making LGBTQ+ Spaces Accessible
Jax Kynn, Hannah Boyke and Brendon T. Holloway

Chapter Twenty Sexual Well-Being Among Young Disabled People
Ami Goulden

Chapter Twenty-one Compulsory Monogamy is Disabling: Connecting Disability Justice and Critical Non-monogamy
Laura Yakas and Nicole Ariel Lopez

Chapter Twenty-two - Caring for Disabled Kinksters: Context & Practical Guidance for Providers
Maria Morrero, Nicole Ariel Lopez, Hillary K. Hecht, Erin E. Dobbins and Grace Argo

Chapter Twenty-three - Weight Stigma, Desirability & Disability
Hillary K. Hecht, Erin N. Harrop and Ben Lemanski